Happy days are here again fellas, because you won’t need to be raiding the little lady’s hairspray any longer! Our good friends at AK interactive have come up with a solution to our hair spray needs. They have just released two different acrylic products that create the worn and chipped effects that are so much in vogue these days. Along with these two, AK has also released a bottle of enamel pigment fixer for their ever growing line of pigments.
review
The first of the two products is AK 088 Worn Effects, which will cause lighter scratching and worn effects. The second product is AK 089 Heavy Chipping, which does just what its name implies, allows for the heavier chipping effects. Both come packaged in the standard AK Interactive 35 ml. bottle with the twist cap that provides a very nice seal when twisted shut.
I gave each of these products a limited try, for the chipping and worn effects products I used a pair of shutters from the MiniArt Italian Village Diorama. Both were applied through the airbrush and sprayed very nicely as you would expect. On top of that I sprayed a couple of misted coats of Vallejo Air duck egg blue which I allowed to dry for about ten minutes or so. My previous experience with hairspray ended up with me using a toothbrush and a lot of elbow grease to get down to the hairspray to release and reveal the undercoat, not so with either one of these products. I dipped a brush in water, ran it around the edges and once across the blinds and then I let it set for about one minute. After it had that small amount of time to absorb I started in with a clean dry brush and the top coat came off very easily, it was easy enough to remove the top coat that I could pick and choose exactly where I wanted worn effects to appear. The one caveat to the whole procedure was that while both worked very well I couldn’t really discern much difference between the two; I’m guessing that whatever binder is used is simply in somewhat different concentrations from one product to the next.
The AK 048 Pigment Fixer works reasonably well, I gave it a try in two different ways. First, I applied some of the AK pigments then I applied the pigment fixer. When I did this it tended to grab the pigment and pull it into the lowest areas before drying. If you want it to appear over the surface of the entire area you need to do what I did for the second method which is apply the pigment fixer first then, with a worn out brush, apply the pigments directly into the wet fixer. This actually works very well; it allows you a bit of working time as the enamel dries slowly. I used this method to create some rudimentary streaking and was happy with the overall results.
conclusion
I give all of these products hearty thumbs up. I am looking forward to working some more with the chipping and worn effects in particular, perhaps a KV series tank is in my near future?
SUMMARY
Highs: Ease of use. Great effect that is much easier to control than with hairspray alone. Fixer provides long working time. Lows: Not much difference between the two different chipping products. Verdict: Highly recommended. Dump the hairspray and grab a bottle of this, you'll be happy you did!
Our Thanks to AK Interactive USA! This item was provided by them for the purpose of having it reviewed on this KitMaker Network site. If you would like your kit, book, or product reviewed, please contact us.
About Rick Cooper (clovis899) FROM: CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
I have been modeling for about 30 years now. Once upon a time in another century I owned my own hobby shop; way more work than it was worth. I tip my opti-visor to those who make a real living at it. Mainly build armor these days but I keep working at figures, planes and the occasional ship.
So, basically, if I understood correctly, the process is still the same as with the hair spray (except without actually using an hair spray)? Looks interesting.
Rob
Two notable features of this product, to me at least, is that it is acrylic based and nonflammable (the hairsprays that I have used contain alcohol and are flammable). Also, as Karl pointed out, different brands of both hairspray and paint combinations performed erratically, so I'm hoping that this product will give more consistent results. I'll have to give it a try myself to find out
Two notable features of this product, to me at least, is that it is acrylic based and nonflammable (the hairsprays that I have used contain alcohol and are flammable). Also, as Karl pointed out, different brands of both hairspray and paint combinations performed erratically, so I'm hoping that this product will give more consistent results. I'll have to give it a try myself to find out [/quote]
Keep me posted
Hey all,
I'm having a hard time trying to find a place to buy the Chipping Fluid or Work Effects. Anyone have any good ideas about where to order these in the US? Looking online at the 'usual suspects' for buying modeling supplies hasn't turned up anything for me. I'd like to try this stuff, but I need to find it first!
Another feature I've seen years ago on planes for chipping was water and salt. Basically you wet the area, sprinkle some salt on it and let it dry. Once done, you paint your top coat, then brush the salt away, and same effect. Works good too, but this is a nice looking product. Will have to give it a try myself.
Comments